Damien Carter-Madison

Name: Damien Carter-Madison Gender: Male Age: 13½ Grade: Freshman School: P.J. Gilroy Academy - Mrs. Garrick's Homeroom Hobbies and Interests: Due to the high levels of bullying in school, Damien does not take part in any extracurricular activities. At home, Damien enjoys drawing in his "little book of horrors" or otherwise brushing up on the latest (controversial) literature. He also enjoys video games, and always manages to circumvent a housewide prohibition on anything above the ESRB "Everyone" rating. He also uses similar methods to access the TV late at night to watch his favorite TV show: Survival of the Fittest.

Appearance: Despite being in the throes of an adolescent growth spurt making him nearly as tall as his classmates, Damien Carter-Madison is still quite gangly in appearance, making his uniform appear one size too big. He has gel-tamed jet black hair, which when let free would actually constitute a violation of school appearance regulations. This contrasts with his fair, eerily pale skin, and brown eyes. When he arrives at school his uniform is clean, pressed and free of unnecessary creases. His face is recognizably androgynous, and almost completely free of acne. Despite his outward appearance, he does not wear makeup as other kids with similar dispositions and related fashion senses do, and he and his mother often have to prove this embarrassingly to some wary school officials.



Across his body are the fading remains of several bruises and other relatively minor yet painful (more psychological) injuries, as a result of the bullying in his school. Most of these injuries are completely concealed by his full-body uniform, though sometimes a black eye or a little facial inflammation tends to linger visibly on his face for days as a reminder to his peers as to who they're messing with.

Biography: Damien was born on the West Coast. His father passed away shortly after his birth. Not long after that he was found to have a particularly gifted mind, with an IQ just surpassing 150. The report - which also included a childhood psychological evaluation - also found hints of potential mental illnesses, though those were rather glossed over and summarily covered up by his mother. He entered Kindergarten at preschool age (hence his age handicap) and academically blazed his way through elementary and junior high, before he moved to New Jersey to attend Gilroy Academy. He is particularly adept at math and the sciences and is, quite unintentionally, the darling of his teachers. He also has a closet interest in the graphic arts.

Logic therefore dictates that he is not a particularly happy little boy, and it shows.

From his first day in elementary School, Damien's academic abilities often shone bright enough to blind and earn the irritation and jealousy of his peers. What would start as nasty words would eventually develop into physical action. Any of his attempts to retaliate would often result in further repercussion. In reaction to this, his mother had him moved out of the West Coast to Jersey's Gilroy Academy, where she hoped the more laid-back and higher-achieving student community would treat his kind with more respect. Apparently, she was wrong.

Being picked on by guys and chicks (read, both of the spoiled rich-kids' club in Gilroy's instance, and Marvin Hendrick's clique in particular) alike has become a nigh-daily occurance for him. He often slinks and zips around classmates between class, lunch break and club, getting caught by a particular mean clique more often than not and dragged away to where the faculty won't notice. His fear and lack of proper fight training (regardless of his body type) quickly negates his efforts to resist. By the time he leaves he looks visibly shaken, at the least. His uniform manages to conceal most of his bruises, and the ones on his face fade almost completely overnight.

The other obstacle in his life is his mother, Nicole Carter-Madison. Ever since her husband was killed - exactly how or why she doesn't say, though she categorically denies having a hand in it - she has made it her mission to make sure Damien never comes to harm at home or in school, at least on her watch (obviously, she never escorts him around classes). She is a card-carrying member of Gilroy's PTA and a known activist against bullying in all types of educational institutions. As described above, it's rather easy for Nicole to figure out if and when her son has been picked on. Yet her - and sometimes the faculty's - attempts to 'save' Damien from bullies have frequently led to even more violent reprisals against him, performed behind her back. That Damien has not yet suffered broken bones can be attributed to the fact that this would constitute a breach of school rules so severe that the aggressors' "connections" would actually fail in such a scenario.

This also leads most of the rest Damien's peers to keep their distance from him for fear of repercussions of their own; the rest have ended up befriending him for comparably short periods of time before learning this, resulting in a great deal of mistrust as well. By contrast, Nicole leaves him well enough alone because she believes her son won't try anything stupid/insane.

Naturally, going through this much would make Damien quite paranoid and wary of people around him. He keeps a scrapbook/drawing book full of morbid imagery - in the innocuous guise of a girl's diary - and other scary little sometimes-non-lethal mementos hidden in his clothes drawers, of the things he envisions he'd do to his oppressors, among other things. Even the members of the school's animé club say he actually resembles Wrath (from FullMetal Alchemist), before and after he's picked on.

But the way things look, Nicole is right in a sense. Damien even unconsciously tries to keep up a "sweet little boy" image for his mother when she's looking. Damien has therefore grown scared enough that he won't even try to harm himself out of despair. To be sure, this had been going on since before he moved to Gilroy, but the transfer only heaped upon his frustration that he might never get to exact revenge on everyone who picked on him.

Advantages: He has been hearing some voices in his head as of late. Psychotic, paranoid voices. But that's something he can shake off or shout off...for now. Speaking of his acute paranoia, he will trust next to nobody, and this works to his advantage as it can as a shield against most "sweet-talking" or other verbal deception expected from the craftier contestants. He should also be adroit at sneaking around undetected in places that would provide a lot more cover than a school hallway, and it's not likely that he'd be assigned a backpack or other bag larger than the one he carries around school, so that would help. Damien is also a rather big fan of the original SOTF, so that might also help him work with (though not necessarily adjust to) his new environment.

Disadvantages: Plenty. Damien's not of physically superior stock and would easily succumb to repeated strong blows. His intelligence in the fields of the maths and sciences will probably never come into play when you're trying to dodge bullets and blows from meleé weapons. His paranoia is very likely to alienate those who would genuinely try to befriend him during the course of the game. Although he is normally used to keeping his outward, let alone inward fear in check in most situations where he is threatened by others, the trauma of being isolated in such a fashion could take its toll (and possibly, turn into an advantage).

Number: B06

'Student information originally written by LaZardo, added to roster on 25 October 2006. Additional information also written by LaZardo.'

==

Designated Weapon: Pot Lid Conclusions: Wonderful! B06 has been dreaming of enacting divine retribution against his tormentors for as long as he can remember. Low and behold, Damien Carter-Madison will finally get that chance! I'd be pegging this one for a motivator if he hadn't received the infamous pot lid as a weapon. Who knows, though, perhaps little Damien will surprise us and get creative with that weapon.

Game Evaluations
Kills: Eli McConnell, Kristey Burrowell, Oliver Dodd, Roland Kelly, Vesa Turunen

Killed by: Mariavel Varella

Collected Weapons: Barbed Wire (from Eli), Baseball Bat (from Kristey, barbed wire wrapped around it), Colt Anaconda (as "Best Kill" prize for killing Kristey)

Allies: Eli McConnell, Oliver Dodd

Enemies: Marvin Hendrick, Franco Sebberts, Kristey Burrowell, Peter Rosenthal

Mid-Game Evaluation: Damien Carter-Madison had had a very rotten streak of luck in the weeks leading up to his arrival on the island. And when he woke up in the sewers of the island, he really thought it couldn't get much worse. But it did, as he had woken up in the sewers with one of his most powerful enemies, Marvin Hendrick, who quickly found Damien with his flashlight and a lot of luck.

Marvin immediately proceeded to beat up on the boy, believing that Damien's mother Nicole was responsible for his induction into SOTF. Damien did not even attempt to defend with his assigned weapon as it was knocked into the sewer water after the first blow. The more Damien denied his mother's involvement, the harder Marvin's blows became. Eventually he'd beaten the boy so severely (at least in Marvin's judgment) that he decided to leave Damien to die in the sewers. Before Marvin managed to escape through a conveniently-located manhole, he looted Damien's bag of any supplies that might prove vital to him and stuck his own assigned weapon - a pacifier - in Damien's mouth, to add insult to injury. Damien then fell unconscious.

During his time unconscious Damien fell into a sort of dream world, where he met a mysterious, literally shadowy figure that had the same voice that had played in his head in previous times of crises. The shadowy figure assured him that he wasn't dead before giving him some very vague advice. Damien then regained consciousness and managed to find his way out of the sewers through the same manhole that Marvin escaped through (which was, luckily, left open). He also managed to retrieve his "weapon," which had become stuck in a nearby grating.

After a relatively short trek, the battered Damien reached the nearby pagoda, where he encountered one of three women he dreaded, Kristey Burrowell (the other two being Nicole and Reneé, the latter he suspects is also on the island), smashing up items inside. In his hesitation to escape, Kristey managed to spot the boy, and the two were joined by Peter Rosenthal, nearly paralyzing him in fear. Kristey and Peter would then head around the building to figure out how to deal with Damien, but he was able to sneak through the pagoda to eavesdrop on them. What he heard seemed to confirm all his paranoia, and when Kristey caught him writing her name down in his hitlist, she expelled him from the group.

As he left, Damien smiled for the first time in a long time. He eventually ended up at the Botanical Gardens, where he met Eli McConnell and escaped with him after the area was declared a danger zone.

Damien and Eli eventually traveled to the school building to take shelter from the Day 4 rain. Damien's mind was already coming dangerously close to collapse as he heard of Franco Sebberts' exploits. While they rested in a classroom, Damien thought he heard Elias call him a "loser," causing a chain of events that led to him curb-stomping Elias on the cracker tin, racking up his first kill. Having finally snapped, Damien left the school building smiling.

That smile faded - at least for the time being - as he wandered into the forest where he encountered Kristey Burrowell, who was disillusioned from having met and intimidated by her biological half-brother. The two engaged in a brief war of words, where Kristey tried to convince Damien that he was now no better than the people who tormented him, while Damien proclaimed that what he was doing was only justice. The two eventually fought but Kristey left herself open for Damien to strike the fatal blow. After she died, Damien too felt disillusioned until he met his "special friend" once again, giving him the confidence to continue. He also received a Colt Anaconda as a reward for killing Kristey.

His quest for revenge led him to the Residential District, where he briefly found a wardrobe that was sure to traumatize someone's vision, before he caught wind of the fight between Oliver Dodd and Paris Persephone. He managed to arrive as Paris fled, and briefly allied with Oliver as they pursued him to the hospital. They arrived only to find that Paris had committed suicide, and it was then that Damien turned on Oliver, starting a new chase. Damien cornered Oliver at the cliffs and shot him repeatedly with the revolver until the giant fell to his death.

Damien ended up in the Industrial District, where he faced off against Franco Sebberts in an attempt to exact revenge for a traumatic beating that happened during an ill-fated party that Damien was invited too. The ensuing chaos caused the factory they were battling in to collapse. Damien managed to narrowly escape, but the collapse killed Franco as well as two other combatants, Blake Ross and Horace Malcolm. The footage of the event prior to the collapse showed Damien taking aim as well as a loud gunshot-like noise prior to the collapse, but the exact cause may never be known.

Damien decided to rest in the garden, where he happened to share a park bench with the man on a literally holy quest to kill him, Roland Kelly. Rather than a protracted battle scene, the two shared a brief conversation where Roland apologized for being part of the gang that harangued Damien during his school days. Damien forgave Roland with a bullet through the face. With Roland's death, the only one left on Damien's list was Reneé Valenti, whom he did not realize was not participating in the current season. He ended up back in the school, where he had a brief fight (and prevailed) against another giant, Vesa Turunen.

With his sanity in tatters, he engaged Mariavel Varella in a gunfight on the school field shortly afterward and suffered a mortal wound, though both of them were able to flee their separate ways as the school collapsed. Sadly, Damien would not be able to complete his quest, bleeding out in the park near where he had killed Roland a short time before.

Damien is survived by his mother Nicole, who still currently heads her anti-bullying organization.

Post-Game Evaluation: I swear that if his kills don't traumatize the world, that outfit most certainly will. Now that's a competitor who really left his mark.

Memorable Quote(s): ''"You knew...I couldn't do anything...that bitch I was forced to call my mom would just exploit it and make me suffer more...I know nothing about you...then maybe I should try to get to know your inner self better." - battling Kristey

Other/Trivia

 * Damien is the first character on SOTF with a hyphenated surname.
 * Damien's heart rate is monitored in his opening thread. His handler has admitted the mistake of putting the lower number (diastolic) before the higher limit (systolic).

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Damien, in chronological order.

V1 Forums

 * Homeblued
 * Cold Storage Shed Where Her Heart Should Be
 * The Hallways
 * Skipping School
 * A View to a Kill
 * Movie Night Fever

V2 Forums

 * Deep Thought
 * Gala In The Heights

Island

 * Ascent Into Madness
 * Well, Isn't This Fucking Great?
 * Headhunter
 * Damien Broke In
 * Beauty and the Beast
 * Fruits of Thine Labor
 * Forever Falling: Part I
 * Maison d'abattage
 * Land of Make Believe
 * Poet of the Fall
 * The Field of Dreams

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Damien Carter-Madison. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''

Damien is, by far, one of my favourite characters on the site. Somewhere, in the shattered psyche of highschool memory, there's a little Damien in all of us. I think he is the epitome of a tragic anti-hero, and I hope the little tyke gets his due. -Nealosi